He started releasing mixtapes around 2005, racking up an increasingly high-profile set of features before breaking through with 2011’s Rolling Papers. Or, as he put it on “Black and Yellow,” “Get fly and take trips and that’s that-real rap.”Ī military kid, Khalifa (born Cameron Thomaz in 1987) spent most of his childhood bouncing around before settling in Pittsburgh. From the beginning, there was something low-key and effortless about him, a joie de vivre that made his music-“No Sleep,” “Work Hard, Play Hard,” “Mezmorized”-feel like a party. Still, if it helps people who haven’t yet discovered Khalifa to tune into his music, then it’s all for the best.Some rappers want to take over the world Wiz Khalifa just wants to meet girls, get money, and smoke as much weed as his constitution will allow.
With two solid independently released LPs to his credit, you’d figure the Wiz kid would know better than to listen to label execs. My guess is that “Roll Up” was rolled out by the suits at Atlantic as a counterpoint to “Black and Yellow,” an effort to show their new artist’s range as a performer. Instead, it’s all about those big, fluffy hooks that you melt like cotton candy when you sink your teeth in, and “Roll Up” undoubtedly has those. Acrobatic wordplay has never been Khalifa’s bag, and it isn’t here. It’s a hokey conceit that admittedly needs some getting past–particularly when Khalifa raps “I could be your best friend”–but it is also one which becomes less irritating with each passing listen. During a bridge near the two and a half minute mark the keyboards start popping like kernels in a microwave, a nice change of momentum in light of the rest of the song’s easy flutter.ĭespite what one might think given the album’s title, “Roll Up” is actually about pulling up to the curb more specifically, it is about ensuring someone who is cheating on her man with the narrator that he (the narrator) will be there whenever she needs him.
The melody here is carried on synth pads which feel lifted from a 1980s Phil Collins lite pop anthem and the drum machine line is a minimalist exercise, premised on a simple set of faux bass drum kicks. “Roll Up,” the recently unveiled second single from Khalifa’s upcoming record shares some of the sensibilities which made “Black and Yellow” so charming, even if it doesn’t come close to delivering on its predecessor’s promise.
It’s infectious chorus and playful synthesizers made it one of the top hip-hop cuts of the year and one of the most instantly memorable rap songs in recent memory.
“Black And Yellow,” an ode to the team colors of all of the professional sports teams in Khalifa’s hometown of Pittsburgh, won over fans on both mainstream hip-hop radio and within the open-minded segments of the indie music community (scoring placements on both A-Trak‘s Dirty South Dance 2 and Girl Talk‘s All Day). Although his major label debut, Rolling Papers, won’t be released by Atlantic Records until March 29th, one of the album’s tracks made Wiz Khalifa an overnight superstar way back in September of 2010.